Re: Working later than the boss

[Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>]

Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
> My point was, your manager doesn't have to be
> working when not in the office, or even when
> *in* the office.  You're not being paid to do your 
> job on the basis of how many hours your manager 
> is working, or on how hard your manager is working.  
> My boss works longer hours than I do; he's always 
> here in the morning when I arrive, about 50% of the 
> time he's still here when I leave and he spends half
> of the rest of his life travelling on business, but even 
> if he only put in four hours a day and spent the rest
> of his time at the track, my primary concern is whether
> I am being compensated within our agreed-upon
> terms for the time and effort *I* put into *my* work.
> 
> To put it in other terms, I have a gardener.  He
> came to my house, we talked about what I wanted
> done, he quoted me a price for the monthly service.
> He comes on our agreed-upon day, does the agreed-
> upon work and sends me monthly bills, which I pay.
> Is it "inherently wrong" that I am not there when he
> arrives and leaves, or that I am not busily working
> on some other aspect of my home maintenance while
> he does the work I pay him for, and should he be 
> "irritated" or "resentful" if I choose to go to a 
> movie instead?
> 
> The manager/employee relationship is based on
> you doing the work your manager assigns you and
> your manager getting you the resources you need
> and compensation you consider appropriate for 
> what you do.  Your manager's workload is 
> between your manager and whoever he/she reports 
> to.  You're not characters on "Lost" who have some 
> moral obligation to shoulder all of life's burdens 
> equally.
> 

Nor are you a cog in a machine wearing blinders to
everything that goes on around you. The gardener
analogy doesn't work: you're paying the gardener
to garden. You don't garden, the gardener isn't
part of an employment team you manage, and after
you discussed your expectations, you haven't
changed the rules on him.

You said there's nothing wrong with employees
perceiving their manager to put in less hours
than they do on a consistent basis, and asking
them to shoulder even more of the burden now.
 From a pure employment perspective, you're right.
However, I was trying to point out that there is
a morale perspective to this issue that you didn't
seem to be taking into account.

Finally, we don't really know the entire situation
here so it's probably pointless to speculate any
further.

-- Janice

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Janice Gelb          | The only connection Sun has with
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